A Bear to Bridge a Gap
by Adriana Snow
Summary: Pearl gets left alone with Steven for the first time in his life and she transitions from a why-can't-this-meat-bag-talk mentality to her standard overprotective Bird Mom mentality in just about 5 minutes. Toddler!Steven


**Author's Note: **This came from the fact that Pearl didn't want to hold Baby!Steven in "Steven's Birthday" while Garnet and Amethyst seemed fine with it. I figured that she never really interacted with him as a baby. However by the time he was the age he was in the theme song, she'd obviously fallen head over heels for him. I wondered how that happened and ended up with this.

Pearl sat on one of the benches they'd scavenged from Amethysts room some time ago. She held her knees loosely with one arm and stared out at the ocean, not really seeing it. If she focused on the sound of the waves crashing against the beach, she could almost ignore the other sounds that were being made closer to her.

She couldn't understand why they always forced her to be here. It wasn't as though she enjoyed these times and she was sure her presence was just a nuisance.

"Pearl." There was a bite to the word which confirmed her thoughts.

"Yes?" she asked, not looking at her.

She could feel the irritation pouring off the other gem and Pearl half wished she was emotionally or mentally capable of doing something to diffuse that irritation and half wished that the thing holding Amethyst back was out of the room so she could pick at it until they were screaming at each other as they'd taken to doing so recently. Just. Something to give them both some sort of release.

"I dropped Steven's food and I need to get more."

"And?"

"And," Amethyst said through her teeth. "I don't know when Garnet will be back, and Greg is busy until later tonight."

Pearl finally looked at her. She had Steven in her arms, his hands tangled in her hair in a way that couldn't be comfortable, but Amethyst didn't even seem to notice.

When Pearl didn't respond, Amethyst continued. "Look, he's good alright. He's not going to need anything for a while and he can just stay here in the playpen. I'm not asking you to feed him or wash him or change his diaper or any of that 'gross' stuff. Just make sure he doesn't die for a few minutes." She detangled him from herself, carefully pulling open his fists to remove her hair, and sat him down a few feet from Pearl.

Pearl felt panic crawling up her throat. "Amethyst, I can't."

"Yes. You. Can." Amethyst said, her face twisted up into a scowl. "You just don't want to."

Pearl's eyes found the little creature who was pouting a bit on the ground. Amethyst was wrong, Pearl thought. She really, really, couldn't. But, there didn't seem to be room for argument and any rational protest she started to think up got scrambled around in her head and floated away.

Amethyst bent down to give the toddler a kiss on both cheeks making him giggle. Then, before Pearl could even come to terms with what was happening, she was gone.

The child looked around once Amethyst was gone and made eye contact with Pearl. He babbled something unintelligible and opened and closed his hands in her direction. She looked away from him and curled up into a tighter ball, her face pressed into her knees. After a few moments, she could hear him start to move around, grunting with the effort to get his body to actually move how he wanted it to. She kept her eyes closed until, a few minutes later, she felt something poke at her leg.

She glanced down at Steven. "Yes?" she asked even though she knew he wouldn't be able to string together any actual words to respond. He held up a purple stuffed bear in response. From what she'd observed on better days where she watched him and the others a bit, it was his favorite bear. Garnet and Greg always gave it to him when he was upset, and he always clutched it in sleep. He tended to drag it everywhere and every so often Greg had to take it away to be washed. The toddler would mope until Amethyst distracted him with some game. She looked at him for a moment wondering what manner of half-baked thought had provoked this behavior. When she didn't do anything, he shook the bear, insistent.

"I'm not sure what you want," she told him. He just gave her a look like she was the one too stupid to talk and pressed the toy up against her leg. "Are you… trying to give it to me?" she asked. He just smiled an almost toothless smile and banged the toy against her leg softly. But why would he do that? Hesitant, but wanting to test her theory, she reached out to the toy. He released it once he saw she had a grip on it and took a step back. He titled his head at her, eyes bright and cheery now that the toy was in her possession. Strange, since he would normally be sniffling already without it. She considered the stuffed animal in her hands for a moment. It was soft from wear and repeated washing and its side had been stitched up after an accident. For some reason she couldn't name, her insides twisted up into a knot. "I…" she looked down at him and managed a little smile. "Thank you, Steven." His eyes lit up when she smiled at him and that made the knot tighter.

He scampered off, leaving her to contemplate his gift. There was a bit of spit on its ear that made her nose scrunch up for a moment, but she was able to overlook it. She ran a finger over the tight ball of string that had been stitched to make its nose. Then, she felt another tap on her leg.

She looked down to see Steven offering her another toy: a train that he and Amethyst often played with. She'd always make train noises and he'd laugh while ramming it against anything in his vicinity, but now he was just calmly holding it out to her. Unbidden, a soft laugh puffed out of her mouth. "Thank you, Steven," she said taking this toy as well. He clapped his hands with a joyful little sound.

Emboldened by his success, he toddled his way back to his toys. She watched him as he contemplated his possessions with a serious expression before choosing another of his favorites: a rubber duck that squeaked and spurted water when he took a bath. She thanked him and took that toy as well, making his eyes light up once again.

He continued in this way, carefully picking out only his favorite toys and offering them to her until she had a sizable pile next to her on the bench. When he offered her one of his blankets, she couldn't help but laugh.

"I think that's enough, Steven," she told him and, without thinking, instead of taking the blanket from him, she grabbed him by the waist and lifted him up, so he settled against her knees, facing her.

He made a happy squeak and reached out to her face. She leaned forward to see what he'd do, and he patted her cheeks a bit with an ecstatic giggle. She grinned back at him and stroked a bit of his hair away from his face. She didn't know if she'd ever been this close to him. At least, not since that one time when he was a baby and that had gone poorly. Something squirmed uncomfortably inside her at the memory. He smelled a bit sweet, probably from the strawberry mash Garnet had been feeding him earlier, and a bit like baby powder. His little hands were soft against her face and his body radiated warmth that sunk into her legs where he was leaned against her. His eyes were like his mother's, but different. There was kindness and excitement, but there was also a gentleness to them that she'd never seen in Rose's eyes even on her best days. They were untainted from a life of isolation and then war and then despair. She felt a strong urge to hold him close and after a moment gave into that urge. She pulled him into her, straightening her legs and settling him across her lap. She reached over to the bear he'd given to her earlier and offered it to him. He took it and cooed a bit.

After a few minutes, he started happily stroking the top of the bear's head and, with a start, she realized he was mimicking her, as, at some point, she'd started running her hands though his soft curls. She didn't stop, instead hugging him a bit closer.

She wasn't sure how long they stayed like that before she heard Amethyst's voice. "Pearl. You're _holding _Steven," she said. Pearl looked up. Both Garnet and Amethyst had arrived and were staring at them. She looked back down at the child in her arms. He'd fallen asleep a while ago and she'd been memorized by the way his chest moved up in down with his breath.

"Yes, it appears so," she responded. She got to her feet, waking Steven in the process. He gripped his bear and made a soft, tired whine. She handed him off to Garnet who took him with a practiced ease. "I…" she said as Steven looked back at her from the other gem's arms. "I have to go," and she walked away, not sure where she was headed. She just needed to clear her thoughts.

"Hey, what the heck, you…"

"Amethyst," She heard Garnet cut her off. "Let's get Steven down for his nap."

It was over three weeks before Garnet and Amethyst saw Pearl again. The first week and a half, bubbles would appear in the temple with poofed corrupted gems. Then they stopped. A week later, there were signs she'd been in the temple, but she'd sequestered herself in her room.

They were playing with Steven in the playpen they'd set up outside the temple when the door to her room finally opened. She'd changed forms at some point in the last few weeks and was strangely carrying a bag that seemed to be filled with books. The two adult gems watched her warily, unsure what to say, but Steven had no such qualms. He babbled some not quite words and waddled over to the side of the playpen closest to her.

"Ah, hello, Steven, how are you today?" she asked, bending over to pick him up and settle him on her hip as though she had done so a million times before. He babbled a bit more and she nodded along to him. "We really should start using more complex sentences with him. He's developing quite well for his age, but apparently speaking to him like an adult should help his speaking abilities develop faster. According to multiple books, baby talk can hinder a toddler's language development. Which of course makes sense. His brain is developing at an incredibly fast rate at this stage in his life, so, we should provide more useful and accurate stimuli to help him grow." Amethyst shot Garnet a look. She just shrugged in response. "Also, we should get him some more mathematical toys. I'm sure some type of building blocks would help his spatial reasoning. There are many toy suggestions in the books that I read.

"oos," Steven said.

"Yes, Steven, books. We should also get you some of those. They'll help you with your ability to speak when we read them to you for now and later you can learn to read them yourself."

"Eee?"

"Yes," Pearl replied enthusiastically before turning to Garnet and Amethyst. "I've made a list of the most useful books for the two of you to read. I suggest starting with the book on child development. It's only a little under 500 pages, but it's a good overview of all of the stages of development for a human child which is important to understand to make sure he stays on track. Then I suggest…"

"Is… is this _worse?_" Amethyst asked Garnet.

"Not for Steven," she replied as Pearl continued to describe the staggeringly long reading list she'd made for them, with Steven inserting his own gleeful comments every few seconds from her arms.


End file.
